Lionsgate already searching for Mockingjay director

July 18, 2012 - By Liam Goodwin

Lionsgate recently announced they’d be splitting Mockingjay, the final movie in The Hunger Games franchise, into two. Release dates have already been set for November 2014 and November 2015, but due to the somewhat rushed production timeline it doesn’t look like Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence will be able to continue on as director.

According to Thompson on Hollywood “Lionsgate movie chiefs, Summit’s Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger, producers Nina Jacobson and author Suzanne Collins are currently vetting the right directors” to take over the concluding films. Director switching had little impact on the Twilight box office revenues, so while fans may want some consistency, it doesn’t appear to be a problem for Lionsgate.

Whoever is hired to direct Mockingjay will probably shoot both parts back-to-back, similar to what Summit did with Breaking Dawn. I guess it’s reassuring for fans that Lionsgate and the producers are planning ahead, as there won’t be another scramble for a director as we saw with Francis Lawrence and Catching Fire. If a director is hired soon they’ll have plenty of time to prepare for shooting in late-2013.